cpu switch?

My mom's mobo got fried cause she installed her ram wrong, this caused an arc and fried it. I was curious, her comp had a P4 2.66 in it and mine has a very modest 1.8 (it's 5 years old). Doing some research on my motherboard I found that it's capable of up to 2.8. If frying the motherboard somehow damaged the cpu and I put it in my machine, would it potentially do any damage? I was kinda happy about almost a 1Ghz upgrade for free but I wouldn't do it if it would fry my computer. I could always just put my 1.8 back in if the other didn't work, but I don't wanna wreck my computer. Any advice?

I looked at the processor, it runs at 533 Mhz, and it looks brand new, the specifications on the top of the processor is a little faded, but it isn't discolored. So as long as I guess it looks ok, it should be ok?

what do you mean by test? check the bios and make sure it's runnin ok? Was plannin on doing that, but is there anything additional I should do? I have an old version of PC-doctor that came with my computer, I think that has a CPU test in there. Thanks.

I'm back at school and I installed it, when I booted it said my FSB was only 400 and the processor was 533, I knew the processor was, but the intel site for my board said it could handle 533. I can run it, but only at 2.0Ghz, which is only .2Ghz upgrade. My board, according to my bios, is an intel D845GRG. But my bios also says I have a gateway 2000S or something, while I have a 500SE, odd. But the specs for my board on intel.com also had slightly different specs, such as 5 PCI while mine has 3 and 2G of memory while mine can only support 1. I don't quite understand what's up. My bios is new (upgraded recently), so any suggestions?

also, looking at the bios versions, the one from the intel site and the one provided by gateway are different. Can you change the bus speed based on the bios? I've heard gateway does strange things to the boards to make them not very upgradeable.

I get how some boards can't handle 533, but according to intel mine does! That's what bothers me. But as far as Bios goes, the bios update enabled 1G of ram (the boards max), before it wouldn't like above 700Mb or somethin. Do you think the bios can change the bus speed? I currently have the gateway version of the bios, do you think it's better to have the intel version of it? They're slightly different.

the fsb is not adjustable in the bios. I'm assuming gateway locked it down with the bios somehow or something like that. That's why I was wondering if it's safe to go with the intel bios for my mobo instead of the gateway.

The truth is the chipset can handle 533MHz but your motherboard does not support it and also your motherboard does not support "overclocking". What you need is a new retail boxed motherboard that can support 533MHz and above.

hmmm... perhaps I'm being slightly ambigious. I have no problem accepting the fact that my motherboard may not be fully compatible with the CPU. However, I find it strange that my motherboard (not my chipset) specs from intel claim to have 400/533 FSB but once gateway got a hold of it, it can only handle 400. I'm simply asking if it's wise to try the bios from intel for my board, as opposed to the bios provided by gateway, in the hopes that it unlocks what the board can actually do, instead of it being annoyingly restricted.

The safest way to get a bios upgrade is of course from the computer manufacturer (Gateway). They are slightly different from design and specification. In my observation and also if you notice, most branded computers do not allow "overclocking" so this feature might be permanently disabled or not included in their motherboard design.

ahhhh, thank you! I never actually knew what the chipset did, I didn't know it had anything to do with the bus speed. That makes a lot of things make sense. Ok, yes that is my chipset, so I guess I'll have to live with 400 Mhz until I build my own machine. Thanks for all the help! oh, btw, the chip works fine albeit it's limited. It was a bugger to change so I'm just gonna keep it in. Thanks again!